Russian Federation

Form of Government: Federation

Branches of Government

Executive Branch

Ministries: Interior, Civil Defense, Foreign Affairs, Defense, Justice, Healthcare, Culture, Education and Science, Natural Resources and Environment, Industry and Trade, Tele-and-Mass Communications, Regional Development, Agriculture, Sport, Transport, Finance, Economic Development, Energy, Labour and Social Security, Development of the Russian Far East

President: Vladimir Putin

Constitutional Responsibilities: Commander and Chief, Protection of Rights and Liberties, Protection of State Sovereignty, Domestic and Foreign Policy

Legislative Branch

Federal Assembly

Federation Council

State Duma

Judicial Branch

Supreme Court: nominated by the President, appointed by the Federation Council

Capital: Moscow

How secure is the presidency of Vladimir Putin? What are likely sources of an institutional or personal challenge to his administration?

Administrative Divisions: 46 provinces (oblasts): Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl'

21 republics: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan (Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas), Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk), Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola), Mordoviya (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Sakha [Yakutiya] (Yakutsk), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk) autonomous okrugs: Chukotka (Anadyr'), Khanty-Mansi (Khanty-Mansiysk), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard)

krays: Altay (Barnaul), Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Perm', Primorskiy [Maritime] (Vladivostok), Stavropol', Zabaykal'sk (Chita)

federal cities: Moscow [Moskva], Saint Petersburg [Sankt-Peterburg]

autonomous oblast: Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)

Constitution: 1993

Political Parties

United Russia

Percentage of vote 2012 election: 63.6%

Communist Party

Percentage of vote 2012 election: 17.18%

Liberal Democratic Party

Percentage of vote 2012 election: 6.22%

A Just Russia

Percentage of vote 2012 election: 3.85%

Independent candidate for President, 2012 (Mikhail Prokhorov) percentage of vote: 7.9%

Budget: 72 billion USD (2011)

Four Military Districts: (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Military_districts_of_Russia_2010.svg for military district map.

Military Branches

active duty troops: 1,040,000 reserve troops: 2,035,000

Ground Forces: 360,000 active duty troops

Navy: 133,000 personnel

Air Forces: 160,000 personnel

Independent Combat Arms: Airborne troops, Strategic Rocket Forces, Aerospace Defense Troops

What is the likelihood of a return to major hostilities in the Caucasus region, whether in Russia's North Caucasus, or the southern areas of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia? Would conflict destabilize Putin's presidency?

Military expenditure: 3.9% of GDP (25th in world)

Service Obligations: compulsary or voluntary service for males, 18 - years of age. Service Obligation: 1 year

Manpower fit for military service: of males, age 16 - 49 20,431,035

Can Russia acquire the necessary technology and foreign investment to take advantage of the current oil shale boom? Conversely, can Russia develop the infrastructure to support much needed value-added industry, diversifying away from an energy export dominated economy?

Airports with paved runways over 3,047 m: 54 (in comparison with US: and China:

Railways: 87,157 km (2nd in world)

Roadways: 982,000 km (7th in world) Paved: 776,000 km, 30,000 km of expressways, (in comparison with US: and Germany: )

Merchant Marine: 1,143 (11th in world)

Electricity Production: 983.2 billion kWh (5th in world)

Electricity Consumption: 808 billion kWh (6th in world)

Communication

Telephones - mobile carrier: 236.7 million (2011) (6th in world) 1,000 companies licensed to offer communication services.

Internet users: 40.853 million (2009) (10th in world)

Patents: 41,414 (2011) compared with USA: 503,582 China: 526,412 Germany: 59,444

How will the Russian economy respond to a fall in oil prices within the next 2 years?

Assets

Gold Reserves: 936.7 tonnes (2012) - compared to U.S. holdings of 8,133.5 tonnes and Japan holdings of 765.2 tonnes

Stock of Broad Money: $787.9 billion

Vital Rates

Commercial Bank Prime Lending Rate: 8.45% (2011)

Central Bank Discount Rate: 5.5% (2010)

Inflation Rate: 8.4%

Gross Domestic Product: $1.821 trillion

Energy Production

Natural Gas Production: 669.6 billion cu m (2011) (2nd in world)

Natural Gas Exports: 203 billion cu m (2011) (2nd in world)

Crude Oil Production: 10.21 million bbl/day (2011) (3rd in world)

Refined Petroleum Products: 4.802 million bbl/day (2008) (5th in world)

Refined Petroleum Products Exports: 1.924 million bbl/day (2008) (3rd in world)

Crude Oil Exports: 5.43 million bbl/day (2011) (3rd in world)

GDP per capita: $16,700 (2011); $16,000 (2010); $15,400 (2009)

Industry: extracative industries producing coal, oil, gas, metals, rare earths; chemicals; machine building - wide array of manufactures including high performance air and space craft; advanced military equipment including missles and advanced electronics; shipbuilding, road/rail transportation equipment, agricultural machinery; medical and pharmaceutical products

Services: banking, IT services, retail, telecommunications, construction, real estate, insurance, tourist agencies, etc.

Agriculture: grain, fruit and vegetables, foodstuffs

Labor Force: 75.33 million

Unemployment Rate: 6.6% (2011)

Labor Force by Sector

Services: 62.7%

Industry: 27.5%

Agriculure: 9.8%

Change in size

Exports: $520.3 billion

Industrial: chemicals, wide array of civilian and military manufactures, metals

Agricultural

Extracative and unrefined natural products: petroleum/petroleum products, natural gas, wood/wood products

Imports: $322.3 billion (2011)

imports - commodities: machinery, vehicles, pharmaceutical products, plastic, meat, fruit, optical and medical instruments, iron and steel

Population: 142,517,670

Fertility Rate: 1.61 children per woman - 178th in world (2012)

Women in Workforce

Age Structure: 0 - 14 years 15.7% of population. 15 - 64 years 71.3% of the population. 65 and over 13% of the population

Median Age: 38.8 years

Religions

Russian Orthodox

Practicing Worshipers: 15 - 20% of population

Muslim

Practicing Worshipers: 10 - 15% of the population

Other Christian

Practicing Worshipers: 2% of the population

Can Russian society begin to reverse a multi-decade long malaise; overcoming an internal (as well as external) perception of widespread corruption and demographic decline? Can a change in perception of Russia positively impact the flow of foreign and domestic investment?

Ethnic Groups

Russian: 79.8%

Tatar: 3.8%

Ukrainian: 2%

Bashkir: 1.2%

Chuvash: 1.1%

Others, including but not limited to: Kazakh, Tajik, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Armenian, Chechen: 12.1%

Literacy Rate: 99.5% of population over 15 can read and write.

Education

Education Expenditures: 3.9% of GDP (107th in world)

Average years of schooling: 14 (2008)

Health Issues

Health Expenditures: 5.4% of GDP (132nd in world)

Life expectancy male: 60.11 years female: 73.18 years (2012)